A multi jurisdictional effort, which included help from local residents and businesses, has paid off and yesterday afternoon as the lead agency, the Amador County Sheriff’s Department announced they had found the missing hiker for which a massive hunt had been taking place. On Monday June 11, 2007 at approximately 1450 hours, Magee was located approximately 1.5 miles east of the Amador County line in Alpine County, near Beebe Lake.  Magee was located by a California National Guard Helicopter search team after he placed pine needles on his camp fire to create a smoke plume. 

District Attorney Todd Riebe has filed charges against the managers of a local Inn for crimes including embezzlement and grand theft. According to the complaint the managers of the Kennedy Mine Inn located on Jackson Gate Road, fraudulently appropriated over $400 worth of property which was in their care. The District Attorney’s office is charging 57 year old Steven Randy Asman and 43 year old Dolores Louise Goodman with Embezzlement by Public or Private Officer, which is a felony.

The Oro de Amador Property was another hot topic of discussion at last night’s Jackson City Council meeting as City Manager Mike Daly gave an update to the City Council on the next steps to take towards developing the property. In April and May three workshops were held to gather community ideas for the future of the historic parcel. The workshops were well attended by 40 members of the community who offered a wide array of ideas ranging from community gardens, preserving the land as open space, recreational facilities including fields of all sorts and a trail system, wildlife habitat areas, and a wide variety of suggestions for community and cultural centers.

Amador County roadways were extremely quiet until Monday morning rolled around. According to the California Highway Patrol report 12:05am an accident occurred on Us Forest Service land South of Hwy. 88. Investigating Officer Cheryl Wilburn reported that Alasia Marie Manrey-Stover, 23 out of Pine Grove was driving with her passenger Mary Long while under the influence when she apparently crashed. Manrey-Stover was air lifted out with possible head injuries. 

The four way stop at Jackson Gate Road and Hwy. 49 was the scene of another accident yesterday morning. At 10:25am Monday morning the CHP was called to the scene of an accident reported as a vehicle being sandwiched in between two other vehicles with unknown injuries.

The Amador County Search and Rescue Unit kicked into high gear this weekend with the report of a missing hiker. According to a Press Release from the Sheriff’s Department On Saturday June 9, 2007 at approximately 3:36 pm a report was made to the Sheriff’s Department  that a 65-year-old male resident of San Francisco had failed to return from a planned hiking trip in Amador County. 

HR 1654 introduced at the end of May by our own Congressman Dan Lungren is a bill that would change the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, or IGRA, to require that the Secretary of the Interior determine that a gaming establishment on certain newly acquired Indian lands would be in the best interest of not only the tribe that is proposing to develop those lands, but also that the proposed development would not detrimental to the surrounding community.

A school prank at Argonaut High school may end up costing the School District thousands of dollars. On Friday morning Argonaut High School staff discovered that many of the schools locks were glued shut. According to the school resource officer, “At this point we have no real suspects and it is an ongoing investigation.” Apparently there have been set backs in the investigation because most of the investigative leads are coming from high school students and now that school is out for summer students will be more difficult to contact.

The Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has announced that they will be conducting construction work on Highway 104 in the City of Ione. The work is scheduled to begin today Monday, June 11 through Friday, June 22, from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released its Sierra Proposed Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement (RMP/EIS). The plan provides direction and guidance for more than 230,000 acres of public land located primarily in nine central California counties including Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Mariposa, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Tuolumne and Yuba counties.